Important Notice: California Native Plant Society now requires all field trip participants to sign an annual waiver of liability. This can be done online at WaiverSign. Once signed, you will be covered for all Shasta Chapter CNPS events in 2023. Thank you!
Please join us for the following field trips, which will be co-hosted by Shasta Chapter CNPS and Shasta Environmental Alliance (SEA).
Westside Trail Complex Walk-and-Talk
Saturday, March 18, 9 AM
- This will be an easy two- to three-mile walk with BLM ecologists Laura and Brooke, and fire management officer Garrett, who will discuss the area’s recent fire treatments in terms of fuels and ecosystem management. This is an opportunity to learn from experts in the field; your questions about fire recovery and the plants and animals of the Westside Trail Complex will be answered during this walk-and-talk. Meet at the Westside Trailhead at the end of Kilkee Drive, Redding, at 9 AM. Dogs welcome if kept on leash. (This field trip, previously scheduled for February 25, was cancelled due to weather conditions.)
Nomlaki Trail, Mendocino National Forest
Saturday, March 25, 8 AM
- This is a three-mile, easy to moderate roundtrip hike at 2000-foot elevation in the mixed-chaparral foothills of Mendocino National Forest, west of Paskenta. The trail has a wide diversity of serpentine plants and should have many new wildflowers as it recovers from the August Complex wildfire of 2020. Time permitting, we will drive farther up the road to a conifer zone. Meet at the CVS parking lot in the Holiday Market shopping center on Placer Street, Redding, at 8 AM to carpool to the trailhead. Bring plenty of water, sun protection, lunch, and gas money for ride sharing. Dogs welcome if kept on leash.
Millville Plains Driving Wildflower Field Trip
Sunday, April 2, 1:30 PM
- This will be a drive-and-stop tour of Millville Plains and a walk through the vernal pools near the old Lumber Jack. We will stop to identify plants along the road in Millville Plains, and then stop at the vernal pools in Redding on our return. An ideal field guide for this trip is Field Guide to the Vernal Pools of Mather Field by Carol Witham, if you can get a copy. We will meet at Redding’s Mt. Shasta Mall parking lot near Chase Bank at 1:30 PM. No dogs on this field trip, please.
McClure Trail, Lassen National Forest
Sunday, April 29, 9 AM
- The McClure Trail is near the Ishi Wilderness area above Paynes Creek and hosts a diversity of plants closer to those commonly found in the Sierra Foothills south into Nevada County. This will be a four-mile, out-and-back, moderately difficult hike that traverses different habitats, ending at a meadow at the North Fork of Antelope Creek. Expect to see many yellow star mariposa lilies, lupines, blue dicks, ookow, and scrub oak (Quercus berberidifolia). Meet at Redding’s Mt. Shasta Mall parking lot near Chase Bank at 9 AM for carpooling. Bring plenty of water, lunch, and gas money for ride sharing. No dogs, please.
For all field trips, rain will cancel if heavy; bring an umbrella for light rain. For more information about any field trip, please contact me at david@ecoshasta.org. ~David Ledger
